Will The Bird Flu Affect The Price Of Your Thanksgiving Turkey?

Poultry producers across the nation have had a very rough year. The avian flu or bird flu has cost many producers millions of dollars in lost animals and profits. To bring that loss a little closer to home for those of us that don't raise poultry. Will the bird flu have an affect on Thanksgiving? Will there be enough turkeys to go around?

We still have plenty of turkeys, we will have plenty of turkeys for Thanksgiving and, as well as, for Christmas. We could see an increase in price.

Lavergne's comments to the Louisiana Radio Network suggested that a price increase of 20-40% per pound wouldn't be unreasonable this holiday season. But don't expect those prices to really show up at the register because of marketing.

Grocery stores using this as their loss leader at this time of the year. For the most part they don’t expect turkey prices to be much higher than what people are usually paying for them from year to year.

In other words most grocery stores will advertise a very low price on turkey to get you in the store to buy the rest of the items you need for your Thanksgiving feast. Another reason you might not notice an increase in price is that most of us eat the smaller hens for our holiday meals. The hens were not affected by the bird flu as much as the tom turkeys were.

It’s declined from a year ago, it’s mostly the Toms that have declined and it’s more of the hens, the smaller sized turkeys, that we consume at Thanksgiving.

The bottom line is that you should have no trouble finding a turkey for the holiday table and in most cases the prices won't be that different than what you've been used to paying in the past.